[Liontamer]

Haldo OC ReMix:

Suzumebachi is back again with another submission! It's been what... a year and a half? Something like that anyways. So I crafted this here remix out of armpit hairs and musical cheese (it smells faintly of the toe variety) at the request of some guy on IRC. Believe it or not, it had actually been in the works for something like 4 years, which is a little ridiculous, but oh wells. There's kind of a long, awesome, and borderline illegal story (prostitution = gray area) behind this song. If you want you can read my hugely long write-up on it over at RTS and crud. But basically the gist is we done got to our 50th song (amazing!) and to celembrate I finished up the song, concocted some incoherent ramblings with the help of my two good friends Jack Daniels and William Shatner, and posted away away away and anyways that's about it. :D

Enjoy!

-Suzumebachi

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http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff6 - "Epitaph" (ff6-309.spc)

Opening's a bit flat despite the thin, but beefed-up percussion; the piano's feeling a bit thin as well, and I didn't like the unnatural decay at :30. Liking the wah-guitar stuff starting at :32, but perhaps think of doing something more with it beyond accenting the track, if only briefly.

The arrangement is reasonably personalized, though I wish you would have gotten more interpretive with the actual melodic progression, which was pretty similar to the original. Play around with it more.

The percussion was too loud compared to the melody and other supporting elements, clashing with the texture rather than meshing with it. The perc volume wouldn't be as big of the deal if the production on the drums was more interesting.

The percussion writing picked up nicely though at 1:14, becoming a more progressive and intricate, seeming less looped. Cool mallet percussion at 1:46 to help add another layer to the picture, but play around with the timing so it's not so lifeless in terms of the timing. The tempo's not fast enough here to pull off looped, perfectly timed sequences for this long without sounding odd.

Nonetheless, the soundfield was still fairly sparse. You need something more substantial/audible in there to pad the track out and fill out the soundfield more, something like the padding around 1:56 but more pronounced. Even when I could hear you have some pads in play (e.g. around 1:00), they sound cheap and they're just way too quiet to really add anything.

The offbeat patterns are cool, but the overall timing throughout the song felt a bit too mechanical and rigid, with only the piano seeming otherwise. I generally like what's in place so far, but it needs extra attention to push it over the top, Ty. Definitely work on it and give it another go soon.

NO (resubmit)

[The Orichalcon]

I've never liked that piano tone. I think a better sample could've been chosen then, maybe even an EP.

The drums are solid and play a nice relaxed role in the piece, in spite of how punchy they are. The instrumentation in the background is relaxing too. The lead is quiet and nice, similar to GaMeBoX's style (which I think I pointed out to Suzu when pre-judging.) The Wah guitar thingo sounds good too, although it probably could've been dropped for the transition between 1:46-1:56, all that section does is make it sound really fake. The ending leaves a lot to be desired. I still don't know why you screwed up a beautiful sounding piece by doing that distorted loud thing. A nice fade-out would've suited this more pleasingly.

I can't listen to the source right now since all my music and programs are on my busted computer's HDD. But I recall the source and comparing in the pre-judgement, and it sounded fine to me.

This is a nice gentle piece, and it's well produced enough to post to the site.

YES

[Malcos]

Tightly compressed drums come in very suddenly with the piano, I wasn't ready for that! The piano at 0.30 had a sudden release that sounded quite unnatural. Things were beginning to sound dramatically better at 1.14.

Overall I think the percussion could have done with some more variation, particularly in the first half of the mix or so, due to the fact that the soundscape is sparse in that section. For me this mix was at it's best between 1.14-1.46. Ending wasn't too nice on the ears and didn't fit the feel of the rest of the piece. Some more work is needed on this, I would definitely like to see this resubbed.

NO (Resub)

[DarkeSword]

Love the texture you've got here. The compressed drums really work for me, though I'd liked to hear some toning down of the snare when the sine lead was playing. A rimshot would have worked better.

Interesting ending too.

I like it!

YES

[JJT]

Hey, Radiohead called. They want their ending back.

YES

Too creative for me not to pass. There were a couple parts where I felt like the drums were detracting from the melody, but that's my only major gripe. Pretty decent stuff Suzumememzumabachilachi.

[Vig]

comes off as kind of simple at first. However as Darkesword noted, the texture is damned cool, and the arrangement just gets better. There's not a ton going on, but there's really plenty of nuance. My overall thoughts on it are that it isn't remarkably ambitious, but what it does is very tight, and there are plenty of interesting ideas introduced.

Solid stuff.

YES

[pixietricks]

Mmmm... groove. :cool:

We've passed sparser soundscapes before; I don't feel shortchanged in the slightest! The drums do sound a little over-compressed, but everything clicks so well here. I can't help but bob my head. Always changing, never boring... This totally belongs as the new background track for that party scene in Garden State. Know what I'm talking about? Love the little marimba break down, too. That was a nice touch.

Good work, Suzu!

YES

[zircon]

Wow, cool beats my friend. I hate to admit to groove bias but the drum sequencing here is just really good throughout and works well. Other aspects of the production were great too - from the guitar chops to the mallet percussion to the synth leads. Some of them were rather simple in execution but really fit in. No real complaints. I mean, maybe the sine lead w/ vibrato could have had some triangle or square mixed in to make it cut through more... but really, it's cool.

I like the arrangement also. The ending was fine - I don't listen to Radiohead so I don't know if the comparison is accurate ;) I DO agree with Malcos that repetition is a weak point here. That being said, it's approached tastefully enough. There's obviously unique interpretation and the source is being sufficiently varied. Some of the chords were changed from the original. At one point, the melody goes high - was a VI in the original but you had it as a v in the mix (I think)... I think the VI was stronger, ultimately, so I'm not feeling that variation. Plus, it makes things slightly more repetitive since you go back and forth between I and v before that anyway. But that's a really small gripe. I'm giving this one a...

Work on your FF7 mix.

Err, I mean...

YES

[JJT]

Originally Posted by zircon

I like the arrangement also. The ending was fine - I don't listen to Radiohead so I don't know if the comparison is accurate ;)

go listen to OK Computer before I have your judgedom removed on principal.